ON THE ROAD AGAIN...

This past November, we "took the show on the road". We visited a different elementary school each week, broadcasting our weather segments live on the air. Such an endeavor can be daunting, and even a little risky- but it was worth it. The kids enjoyed it, and so did we.

I'm always amazed by how fearless kids can be. After all, our weathercasts were completely live. Most of the students had never even visited a television studio, much less spoken in front of a camera. But they were just excited to share their knowledge of weather, and the enthusiasm is contagious.

I was really impressed by some of the topics covered. These students were able to explain mathematical concepts such as means, medians, and fractional graphing with a clarity that rivals many teachers. Many of these students were younger than 11 years old. We also covered topics such as the water cycle, hurricane development, and climatology.

The students were also quite professional- patiently waiting while our crew set-up cameras and cables. The kids quickly learned the different had signals given by our field photographer, and developed an instinct for the various time cues given by our producers. An "on-location" broadcast can be quite difficult from a technical standpoint, but the kids handled it with ease.

In total, we visited 4 schools- Codington Elementary, Gregory School of Science and Math, Bellamy Elementary, and Mary C. Williams Elementary. This was originally a "November only" event, but given the enthusiastic response from students- I belive we will be visiting many more schools for "Weather on the Go" in 2009!